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Black women gathered in discussion for an episode of "Black Journal."

“The Black Woman”

Black women activism within documentary films in the 1960s United States.
by Manar Ellethy via Journal of the History of Ideas Blog on April 10, 2024
Endesha Ida Mae Holland in the documentary “Freedom on My Mind.

“Freedom on My Mind”: A Symphony of Voices for Civil Rights

This 1994 documentary brings the passions and agonies of Mississippi’s voter-registration drive into the present tense.
by Richard Brody via The New Yorker on February 22, 2024
Illustration of Ken Burns

The Unbearable Whiteness of Ken Burns

The filmmaker’s new documentary on Benjamin Franklin tells an old and misleading story.
by Timothy Messer-Kruse via The Chronicle of Higher Education on April 20, 2022
Screen capture of a Black man standing in an urban residential neighborhood, speaking in the documentary "Who Killed the Fourth Ward?"

How “Who Killed Fourth Ward?” Challenged the Nature of Documentary Filmmaking

James Blue’s film investigated the destruction of a Black neighborhood in Houston, but it is also a powerful self-interrogation.
by Richard Brody via The New Yorker on January 21, 2022
John Coltrane performing

‘It Didn’t Adhere to Any of the Rules’: The Fascinating History of Free Jazz

In the documentary "Fire Music," the hostile reaction that met the unusual genre soon turns into deep appreciation and a lasting influence.
by Jim Farber via The Guardian on September 7, 2021
Sly Stone performing in front of crowd

What the Harlem Cultural Festival Represented

Questlove’s debut as a director, the documentary "Summer of Soul," revisits a musical event that encapsulated the energies of Harlem in the 1960s.
by David Hajdu via The Nation on July 29, 2021
Broadway New York 1893

Perilous Proceedings

Documenting the New York City construction boom at the turn of the 20th century.
by David Gibson via Library of Congress on June 29, 2020
Soldiers inspecting damaged helmets in a scene from John Huston's 1945 film "The Battle of San Pietro."
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The War Documentary That Never Was

John Huston's 1945 movie The Battle of San Pietro presents itself as a war documentary, but contains staged scenes. What should we make of it?
by Kristin Hunt via JSTOR Daily on December 5, 2019

Colorizing and Fictionalizing the Past

The technical wizardry of Peter Jackson's "They Shall Not Grow Old" should not obscure its narrow, outdated storyline.
by Bridget Keown via Nursing Clio on February 12, 2019
Skateboarder doing trick on ramp.

How a Generation of Women and Queer Skateboarders Fought for Visibility and Recognition

On defying gender norms and expectations in extreme sports.
by Deborah Stoll via Literary Hub on July 18, 2024
William F. Buckley Jr. at a press conference.

An Implausible Mr. Buckley

A new PBS documentary whitewashes the conservative founder of National Review.
by Rick Perlstein via The American Prospect on April 17, 2024
James Baldwin.

What James Baldwin Saw

A documentary that follows the writer’s late-in-life journey to the South chronicles his vision for Black politics in a post–Civil Rights era world.
by Kelli Weston via The Nation on March 5, 2024
Henry Louis Gates Jr., Great Zimbabwe, circa 1996; photograph by Graham Smith.

Finding My Roots

The storytellers who taught me over the course of my career all knew how to bring Black history vividly to life.
by Henry Louis Gates Jr. via New York Review of Books on September 29, 2023
J. Robert Oppenheimer and Leslie Groves

Beyond Tortured Genius: Science and Conscience in Two Rediscovered Oppenheimer Films

"The Day After Trinity" and "The Strangest Dream" evacuate the mythical tropes of the tortured genius biopic that Hollywood loves to rehearse.
by Lauren Carroll Harris via Literary Hub on August 31, 2023
Ken Burns speaking into a microphone.

Shaming Americans

Ken Burns’s "The U.S. and the Holocaust" distorts the historical record in service of a political message.
by Amity Shlaes via City Journal on January 9, 2023
Crowds of people filling Ellis Island Immigration Station

Ken Burns Turns His Lens on the American Response to the Holocaust

Commemorating the Holocaust has become a central part of American culture, but the nation’s reaction in real time was another story.
by James McAuley via The New Yorker on September 18, 2022
Image of army soldiers and weapons facing crowd of protestors holding signs

A Theater of State Panic

Beginning in 1967, the Army built fake towns to train police and military officers in counterinsurgency.
by Bench Ansfield via New York Review of Books on September 16, 2022
New York, 1929, men pointing to a sign reading "No Booze Sold Here"

Freedom From Liquor

Ken Burns’ account of prohibition tells a popular story of booze in America. The historical record is far more sobering.
by Mark Lawrence Schrad via Aeon on September 6, 2022
Illustration of Vincent Chin on red background surrounded by smaller illustrations of videographers, protestors, and grieving people

The Many Afterlives of Vincent Chin

Chin’s killing, 40 years ago, has inspired documentaries, young-adult books, and countless works of scholarship. What do we want from his story, and the people who tell it?
by Hua Hsu via The New Yorker on June 23, 2022
Alexander Berkman speaks in Union Square at a gathering of the Industrial Workers of the World.

The “Wobblies” Documentary Reminds Us Why Bosses Are Still Scared of the IWW

The recently rereleased 1979 film can teach today’s workers how to throw their weight around.
by R. H. Lossin via The Nation on June 16, 2022
Poster for HBO documentary "Exterminate All the Brutes," featuring a human skull painted to look like a globe.

We Must Burn Them: Against the Origin Story

"History​ is written by the victors, but diligent and continual silencing is required to maintain its claims on the present and future."
by Hazel V. Carby via London Review of Books on May 26, 2022
Eartha Kitt engaged in conversation with Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House

When Eartha Kitt Disrupted the Ladies Who Lunch

The documentary short “Catwoman vs. the White House” reconstructs an unexpected moment of activism during the Vietnam War.
by Scott Calonico, Lauren Elyse Garcia via The New Yorker on February 16, 2022
Collage of a contemporary man encircled by layers of an old map, looking at 19th-century men walking past him.

Those Who Know

On Raoul Peck's "Exterminate all the Brutes" and the limits of rewriting the narrative.
by Nick Martin via The Drift on January 27, 2022
Television camera operator at work.
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Latino Empowerment Through Public Broadcasting

How Latinos have used public radio and television to communicate their cultures, histories, hopes, and concerns.
by Alexandra García, Gabriela Rivera via American Archive of Public Broadcasting on November 23, 2021
Person looking at 9/11 museum

What the 9/11 Museum Remembers, and What It Forgets

Twenty years after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the museum is still struggling to address the legacy of those events.
by Emily Witt via The New Yorker on September 9, 2021
Photos of victims in the 9/11 museum

The 9/11 Museum and Its Discontents

A new documentary goes inside the battles that have riven the institution and shaped the historical legacy of the attack.
by David Klion via Intelligencer on August 26, 2021
Illustration of Jon Meacham

The Man Who Loved Presidents

A review of Jon Meacham's newest book and documentary.
by Thomas Frank via Harper's on June 10, 2021
Picture of the Ingalls family from the TV Series, "Little House on the Prairie."

Laura Ingalls Wilder in the Big Woke Woods

A recent documentary reminds us of her family’s strength and our own weakness.
by Jonathon Van Maren via The American Conservative on February 26, 2021
A shack on Eastland's plantation, as it appeared in the 1964 film

He Risked His Life Filming A Mississippi Senator's Plantation In 1964

Fannie Lou Hamer is among the sharecroppers interviewed in this unauthorized documentary about the plantation of Dixiecrat James Eastland.
by David Hoffman via YouTube on February 17, 2021

A TV Documentary Shows the Deep Roots of Right-Wing Conspiracy

In 1964, the John Birch Society was the most active far-right group in the United States—unless you count the Republican Party.
by Richard Brody via The New Yorker on January 14, 2021
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